The Basics

Scores: No. 6 Roanoke 9, No. 2 Washington and Lee 6 (Game 1) | No. 6 Roanoke 4, No. 2 Washington and Lee 3 (Game 2)
Records: Roanoke 29-16, Washington and Lee 28-14
Location: Lynchburg, Va. | City Stadium

The Lead: Roanoke captured its first Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Baseball Championship by defeating Washington and Lee twice on Monday.

The Maroons earn the ODAC's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Tournament which starts next Thursday. The NCAA selection show is slated for Sunday, May 14. Click Here for more information on the tournament.

How it Happened

• In the championship game, Roanoke got on the board in the second inning when Sam Watson walked to open the frame, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Scott Ellis and scored on an RBI groundout by Will Black to go in front 1-0.
• W&L loaded the bases in the visitor half of the second inning and scored to tie the game when Paul Diven was hit by a pitch. The Generals then moved ahead 2-1 on an Austin Crane sacrifice fly.
• The Maroons came right back in the next half inning, scoring twice on a Collier Donald double to left field that plated Sean Guida and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Dean Hermanson that brought home Donald later in the inning to make it 3-2 RC.
• In the Roanoke fifth inning, Donald singled with one out and moved to second on a Will Decker base hit. A Hermanson single loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly by Watson scored Donald to give RC a 4-2 lead.
• Washington and Lee got a run back in the bottom half of the sixth inning to cut the score to 4-3 and then had runners on second and third in the seventh inning but Cameron Eck was able to retire Anderson Baldy to get out of the inning and preserve the lead.
• Rawlings Cumbea then entered the game on the mound in the eighth inning and surrendered just one hit, struck out two and was able to get Cory Paton to pop out to end the game and secure the first league championship in program history.
• Ethan Delahunty (1-0) got the win for RC after tossing two innings of relief and Cumbea (1) picked up the save. Tom Concklin (7-4) took the loss for W&L after going 5.1 innings and giving up four runs.
• In the first game of the day, Roanoke needed just four hits to score nine runs in a 9-6 victory.
• With Washington and Lee up 1-0 in the fourth inning, Donald and Decker walked to open the inning and came around to score on a Hermanson double down the left field line to put RC in front 2-1. Later in the inning Ellis grounded out to score Hermanson to make it 3-1.
• In the Roanoke sixth, the Maroons loaded the bases with no outs and Donald scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1, while Drew Mikula was hit by a pitch later in the inning with the bases loaded to make it a 5-1 game.
• Roanoke loaded the bases again in the seventh inning and got RBI walks from Watson and Ellis then a sacrifice fly from Mikula made it 8-1. Watson would make it 9-1 on a double steal.
• W&L rallied scoring two runs in the seventh. Then in the eighth scored three times to make it 9-6 and threated with the bases loaded with no outs, but Sal Trancucci got Matt Wasson to ground into a 1-2-3 double play then got a groundball out from Johnny Swenson to end the inning.
• The Generals brought the tying run to plate with one out in the ninth but Trancucci got the final two outs to secure the win.